Three Years Later
by Luelin
Summary: It's been three years since Marinette and Adrien have carried out their duties as Miraculous Holders. They've fought and grown together as superheroes but what lies ahead for their own lives and what does it mean for these two that have been together only when Paris needed them the most?


Adrien was lying down on his bed staring at his Miraculous ring.

"Plagg, how long have we been doing this?"

"Doing what?" as he munched on his Camembert wedge.

"Protecting Paris."

"I don't know, three years? I don't know what time is anymore for me – I've been around since… forever!"

"It feels like it was yesterday when we started this."

"Yeah, well everything pretty much stayed the same! You still don't know Ladybug's identity!"

Adrien sat up and sighed, "There's nothing I can do, she said that we had to keep our identities a secret and deep down inside, I also know that too, but I can't help it. I want to know who she is."

Plagg flew over to Adrien, "You might not ever even know because sooner or later, you have to relinquish your Miraculous."

Adrien stood up, "What?! What do you mean we have to hand it over?!"

"Well… I mean, not now but when Hawk Moth is finally defeated, Paris doesn't need Miraculous holders anymore and that day can come as soon as tomorrow or even years from now."

Adrien sighed and fell back onto his bed, "Don't scare me like that Plagg. I've been doing this for so long that its been a part of me and… it's my only way out from this place. It's going to be hard giving this up."

Adrien looked out the window. "Let's go out Plagg."

"What do you mean go out? Why can't we just stay home?"

"Because Chat Noir wants to take a stroll."

Adrien gave Plagg a look.

"Plagg! Claws out!"

"Here we go agaiinnnnnn!"

Chat jumped out his window and onto a roof of the next building. He scanned the area – in the distance, he could see the Eiffel Tower with the sun starting to set behind it.

Marinette was sitting at a bench near the Eiffel Tower, designing some accessories on her sketch pad.

There was barely anyone around because it was already late in the evening. A perfect place for quietness if it wasn't at home.

"What are you doing Marinette?" Tikki popped up from her bag.

"Tikki! You scared me!" She giggled.

"I'm just designing some accessories, that's all."

Tikki looked at her sketchpad and noticed one that stood out to her. She flew up closer and pointed at it.

"Is this supposed to be you and Chat Noir?"

"Huh?" Marinette looked over to the sketch.

"Oh, yeah. I was a bit bored and I wanted to see what I could come up with. It's a pair of bracelets that represent Ladybug and Chat Noir."

Tikki observed the sketch. One bracelet was adorned by a dark blue rim with a rich red color around the band that had black spots on it. The other bracelet was a pure black with a thin green line that zig zagged across the band in heartbeat motions and somewhere along the band, had a pair of piercing green cat eyes.

"It would be really awesome if you could actually get these made!"

Marinette laughed a bit, "There's no way!"

"Are you thinking about Chat? You rarely do these types of things with Chat in mind."

"What? No! Of course not, I was just bored!"

"I don't know Marinette. Three years is a long time, I'm sure he's rubbed off you somehow! Maybe you do have a soft spot for him."

"I've always had a soft spot for him, but I think… I don't know…"

"You think what? That you might like him more than you thought you did?"

Marinette went quiet and spoke underneath her breath, "Maybe…"

"What about Adrien?"

"I still like Adrien, but everything's been so hectic. I realize that the more we do this, the more dangerous it gets. Every akumatized person one after the other, gets more threatening and our lives are put on the line more than ever. Chat has always protected me, and I would do the same for him in a heartbeat. At this point, I probably see Chat more than I see Adrien now. We have the same classes but he's always off to do other things that we barely even talk anymore."

Marinette closed her sketchpad and looked up to the sky. Tikki seeing how conflicted Marinette was sunk back into the bag because she didn't know what else to say. Marinette took a deep breath.

She whispered gently like a wind breeze, "Chat…"

Chat Noir dropped out from the sky and landed behind her, looking down.

"You called?" He smirked.

Marinette's eyes widened and yelped. She immediately got up and grabbed her sketchbook, closing her bag at the same time.

"Chat?! What are you doing here?"

"I'm just taking a nightly stroll – you never know what might pop out." He gave another sly smile.

Marinette eyed him weirdly, "Shouldn't you be walking then? Instead of dropping in on people like that."

"Well, I can't leave a lady by herself."

"Thanks for your concern, but I can take care of myself."

"Of course you can, but it's late at night. The least I could do is take you home."

Marinette smiled. "If you insist."

He bowed. "Of course." He swung his cat-like tail in his hand as he started to walk in the direction of Marinette's home. He turned his head, "Aren't you coming?"

"Yes, I'm coming." Marinette started walking next to him and she thought to herself about how tall he had become. And his facial features became a bit more defined. The only things that never changed were his eyes and his playful personality.

"Marinette?"

She looked up and Chat was suddenly really close to her face. She took a step back with a slightly flushed face.

"Are you okay? You look like you're deep in your thoughts."

"H-huh? O-Oh, yeah I'm okay. I guess I do have a lot on my mind" She gave an awkward chuckle.

"Want to talk about it?"

"Let's just say… I'm sort of stuck in the middle. I really like this guy but there's also someone else that's always been there for me and I'm confused about how I should feel or what I should do."

"Complicated, huh? I understand. I'm not in the same situation but I think I understand your feelings."

"Sometimes I wished they were the same person. At times I do feel like they're the same person but there's just no way that they are. But that's just selfish of me. They're two different people."

"Just go with what your heart thinks. Your feelings are much stronger than your head. You might be confused now, but eventually, you'll find your answer." Chat smiled.

Marinette's heart suddenly fluttered a bit and she smiled back. For some reason, she had this sudden courage to tell him that it was him she liked but she knew it probably wasn't a good idea because she knew that Chat loved Ladybug – not her – Marinette. And for once, she felt jealous of herself, but she chuckled at the idea.

"Is something wrong?" Chat stopped in front of her home.

"Nothing's wrong Chat. Thank you for taking me home." Marinette smiled sweetly at Chat.

Chat was taken aback. Her smile reminded him of Ladybug. Marinette turned back and began to walk towards the door. Chat grabbed her by the wrist. Marinette turned back.

"What is it Chat?"

"Are you…"

"Am I?"

"Are you… L-" A loud crash came from a distance. They both looked in the direction of the sound and looked back at each other.

"Get inside, quickly!" Chat Noir gently pushed Marinette towards her door. He began to run off and turned back, "Stay safe." He turned back and vaulted off.

Marinette quickly got inside and ran up to her room and opened her bag.

"Tikki!" The kwami nodded. "Let's go!"

"Tikki! Spots on!"

Ladybug got onto the balcony and she leapt into the direction of the crash.

Chat Noir got to the scene and there were cars that had crashed into each other. He ran up to one of the cars, there was people inside, but they didn't seem critically injured – only passed out and a few cuts here and there. Chat looked around, but he didn't see signs of anyone else. A needle-like bullet flew past him and indented into the hood of the car.

A laughter came from above him and he immediately looked up. The person jumped down from the roof and landed in front of him. It was a female. She had eyes that weren't like the others. They were purely black with icy blue pupils. She wore a long elbow-length black coat that reached down to her knees. Her attire looked something close to an assassin agent mixed with a knight. Her pants were half shorts and half pants, with the shorter side having straps that held what looked like a gun. Her top was adorned by a metal chest plate that only wrapped around her breasts. And her skin, was a pale apricot color that was wrapped in bandages around her wrists and her ankles. She grabbed the gun that was strapped in.

"Chat Noir, how nice of you to stop by, I was looking for you." She smirked slyly.

"Curious cat right?"

"Well, you should know that curiosity killed the cat!" She lunged at him.

Chat Noir flipped back to dodge her. "And satisfaction brought it back!"

She chuckled. "We'll see how long that lasts you, I'll make sure all of your nine lives would never come back!" She aimed at the pole next to him and shot it causing it to fall down towards Chat but he dodged it.

"Are you even aiming correctly?"

"Oh, don't worry, I am"

"It doesn't look like you are"

"You're such a naïve little kitty."

Before he knew it, he was blocked in with nowhere to run.

She laughed maniacally. "You have nowhere to go!" She snapped and out of nowhere, all these citizens showed up. They all looked like they were in a trance and they all surrounded Chat Noir.

"Did you really think this would stop me? I could just jump out."

"Oh no, I wouldn't do that if I were you. I could easily hit you and you would just be as good as dead. Of course, I could just do that right now, but I know you wouldn't want to hurt these poor and innocent civilians. And what's the fun in killing you now? Besides… I'm waiting for someone else right now."

Chat gritted his teeth. The civilians parted ways for the girl to make her way to Chat.

"Just give me your Miraculous and this could be all over for you." She held out her hand, but Chat refused to give it to her.

"No? How stubborn. Fine. If you won't give it to me, I'll just force you to. She held up the gun to his forehead. Goodbye Chat!"

A yoyo hit her wrist which made her drop the gun and allowed for Chat to get out and as far away as possible from her.

Ladybug landed next to Chat.

"M'lady. Nice of you to join."

"Who is she?"

"No idea. She hasn't said."

The girl picked up her gun from the ground and drew out another one. She was a duel gunner.

"Allow me to introduce myself! I am The Corrupter. Because you see… in this world, there is nothing but corruption, so why not let the world destroy itself starting with you two!" She held out her guns and began to shoot at them.

Ladybug and Chat dodged them all.

"We can't get close to her unless we know what her guns do!" Ladybug yelled.

"Allow me to show you Ladybug!" The Corrupter landed next to a tranced civilian and shot them with a black gun and the person fell over to only get back up and start wreaking havoc.

"As you can see Lady and Chat that this causes people to be chaotic and destroy everything. But let's see what happens when…" she shot the same civilian with the blue gun and they fell over until they got up a few moments later and their eyes were black like hers. "While this… makes them attack others. Corruption at its finest." She laughed.

The Corrupter rapidly shot the blue gun at the crowd and snapped her fingers. The civilians started running towards Ladybug and Chat.

"Chat! We need to split up!"

"M'lady, I don't think that's a good idea!"

"We don't have a choice! We have to break them apart!"

"If you say so…" They both ran in the opposite direction.

"You think that's going to stop me from holding onto you?!" The Corrupter yelled. She flew onto the top of a pole and stood there scanning the area. She whispered underneath her breath, "You can run… but you can't hide…" She let out a laughter.

Meanwhile, Chat and Ladybug ran around the streets to lose the corrupted civilians and swung onto the rooftop of a building. They had finally caught up with each other.

"How are we going to take her down?" Chat asked.

"We'll think of something. Right now, she's surrounded by those civilians. Anything we do to her, she'll probably just make them follow up. We have to isolate her somehow."

Chat looked around. "What about the Tower? It's hard for them to get around and we can maneuver around it quickly."

Marinette looked over to the Tower, "maybe" she pondered.

"Okay, let's go Chat!"

"After you M'lady"

They bounded off towards the tower.

The Corrupter had kept scanning the area while her controlled civilians had come back to report to her. She looked towards the Tower. "Typical." She flew off in that direction.

"Come out, come out wherever you are~" The Corrupter teasingly said. She stopped and glanced to her side, she heard someone creeping past her and thought to herself, _They think I can't hear them._ She kept walking around the balcony area.

Chat Noir was creeping on the roof and he peered over to see where she was, and he kept silently still.

"I can hear you, you know?" The Corrupter said aloud.

Chat slipped back and quickly made his way down the roof and into the room with an open window. It was already dark outside, so it was hard to see anywhere but not for Chat since after all – he was a cat. He hid behind a wall inside the room where the Corrupter couldn't see him. He heard the door open.

"If you come out obediently~ You won't be punished~" The Corrupter sang.

He heard her footsteps and leaned his head back on the wall, gritting his teeth. He had no where to go but in front of her. His fingers curled into a ball, he didn't want to be controlled anymore and leave Ladybug alone to fight. It was now or never. He leaped out and faced The Corruptor with his staff in hand. Just as she was about to shoot, Ladybug tackled her from behind and kicked the gun out of her hand.

Chat stepped on the gun but no akuma.

"It's not this one!"

"What?!" Ladybug had The Corrupter pinned. "I thought it was the blue one?"

Chat took a closer look, "It's… not blue anymore."

The Corrupter laughed, "You naïve little fools. You really thought I would fall for that?" She quickly turned and pinned Ladybug down and gained the upper hand.

Chat lunged for The Corrupter.

"No no! I wouldn't do that if I were you, you wouldn't want your precious Lady to be under my control, do you?"

Chat gritted his teeth and gripped on his staff tighter.

The Corrupter pulled out the blue gun, "It's such a shame I lost my black one, but no matter – this is all I need to take both of you down." She dragged a struggling Ladybug outside, keeping her eyes on Chat all the while. "Let's take this downstairs kitty~" The Corrupter dropped down to the ground while holding Ladybug hostage.

Chat followed her down.

"Let her go!" Chat yelled.

"What fun would that be?" The Corrupter responded.

He clenched his teeth.

"Chat! Don't listen to her! I'll be okay! No matter what happens – we'll get through this!" Ladybug screamed out.

"What a hero you are!" The Corrupter laughed "but let's see how much of a hero you are when your heart becomes as dark as this night!" She shot Ladybug in the back and Ladybug fell over.

"NO!" Chat screamed out. He looked at The Corrupter with anger fueling in his eyes.

"Mutilation" he whispered as his claws grew longer.

The Corrupter smiled widely, "Yes, exactly what I was looking for! You only have two choices Chat Noir – you either destroy her or hand me your Miraculous!"

"How about I destroy you?" his voice growled.

"That won't do any good dear kitty as I am untouchable now with your Lady against you." She laughed.

"If I get rid of you, this would all be over!" He yelled.

"Oh look at you, are you angry because you lost a certain person? Do you perhaps want… revenge?" She smiled.

The Corrupter dodged his every move, "Look at you! You don't even need me to help you! You're already corrupted – after all, you must understand, don't you? You're made to destroy things." She taunted him.

"Shut up!" Chat swung at her. He managed to swipe her down to the ground and lunged towards her – claws out. But a wire wrapped around his wrist – something that looked all too familiar to him. He looked over and saw Ladybug, her eyes were still the sapphire blue that they always were, but it wasn't her. The Ladybug he saw was someone that wanted him gone.

Ladybug pulled on her yoyo to yank him off The Corrupter. Chat landed into a car and he got up.

Ladybug was already coming after him. He quickly bolted off from the car and dodged Ladybug's advances.

"Ladybug! It's me!" But she wasn't listening, it was like her mind was in another state and her body was moving on her own.

Chat thought to himself, _What do I do? She can't hear me._ He slipped into an alleyway and masked himself in the darkness to get away from Ladybug's advances. Chat punched the wall, there was nothing he could do. The only way was to get that gun and break it. But he knew he couldn't get it if Ladybug was in the way.

He spoke in a low and hesitant tone, "I have too… I have to get rid of her if I want to save her…" His hands clenched into a fist and he trembled. His eyes watered but he shook his head. "I have to save her." He opened his eyes and turned to look around. He peered out from the building and there was Ladybug waiting for him, her back turned. He studied her and noticed that her back had a blue butterfly where she got shot.

 _I probably have to get rid of that. Maybe I can use cataclysm._ He steadily creeped out from the alleyway and started to run towards her, gripping his staff and readying it to block her attacks. But a gunshot came out of the sky.

"It won't be that easy~" The Corrupter sang.

Ladybug turned around and she knocked Chat backwards.

Chat braced himself as he was being pushed back and slammed into the building. He could feel himself getting more irritated. He couldn't get rid of the akuma without Ladybug and if he tried using cataclysm on the akuma, who knows what could have happened?

Ladybug charged at him and he jumped out of the way – he rolled behind her and pinned her down.

The Corrupter shot at him and he flipped back.

"Cataclysm!" A dark aura surrounded Chat's hand. _I have to focus this more on my fingers, I don't want to hurt her – I just want to burn it off._ The dark aura seemingly lightened, and it focused around his fingers instead, swirling – waiting in anticipation.

Ladybug charged at him while The Corrupter supported her from above. He looked around rapidly but the most he could do was outsmart her. Once Ladybug got closer to him, he dodged and quickly slid between her legs, quickly turned around and pressed his fingers against the butterfly tattoo. It started to dissipate, and Ladybug fell to the floor screaming.

"No!" The Corrupter shrieked. She snapped her fingers and a hoard of people came out from the shadows running after Chat. Chat quickly slung Ladybug – who now went silent – over his shoulder and he ran off into another direction trying to lose the hoard and The Corrupter. He broke into a building and ran to find a room that was far enough to stall for time.

He laid her down, "Ladybug!" He gripped her shoulders, "Please wake up…" He leaned down closer to her chest to listen for her heart – it was still beating. A sigh of relief came from him.

Ladybug opened her eyes slowly, "C-chat? …"

He smiled and felt tears swell in his eyes, but he held them back. "I'm so glad to see you" He picked her up and hugged her.

Ladybug hugged him back. Chat quickly pulled away, "As much as I love this, we don't have time for this right now, we have to get rid of her." Chat's ring beeped.

Ladybug nodded, and she got up with Chat's helped. Her eyes winced.

"What's wrong?" Chat asked.

"Nothing… my back just stings a bit."

Chat looked behind her, her back had a slight burn from where he had touched her before.

"Can you still move?"

"Yes, I can."

"Let's get out of here M'lady!"

They both ran out of the door and looked around. The Corrupter broke through the window.

She hissed, "There you are! You brats!"

"Should have killed me when you had the chance." Chat smiled. He grabbed Ladybug's hand and he ran the opposite direction. "We're going to jump, I trust you to land, right?"

"Of course, who do you think I am silly cat?"

They broke through the window and landed on the ground. They turned around.

"Lucky Charm!" Ladybug yelled, and a pebble landed in her hand. "A pebble? What am I going to do with this?"

"Well, that's your job to figure out, right? It's never failed us before for the last three years." Chat started to twirl his staff, "I'll stall for you."

"Thanks Chat." Ladybug looked around.

"Anything for you Bugaboo" He ran towards The Corrupter.

"You annoying cat!" The Corrupter cried. She shot at him, but he deflected them.

Ladybug kept looking around, she saw a place in the corner of her eye and Chat's staff and The Corrupter's gun. She ran towards the area.

"Chat!" She screamed.

Chat glanced over to her, Ladybug gave him a sly smile.

"Let's play ball, kitty!"

Chat smirked and backed himself a bit.

The Corrupter pulled out four knives and threw it towards Ladybug.

Ladybug quickly threw the pebble straight towards Chat and he hit the pebble with his staff into The Corrupter's gun and it exploded. A little akuma flew out.

Ladybug rolled out of the way but one of the knives hit into her side and stuck there. She winced.

"No more evil doing for you little akuma!" She grabbed the akuma with her yoyo and lightly tapped on it. "Bye bye little butterfly!" She faintly smiled and waved.

She looked down and saw the knife stuck inside of her, she grabbed onto it and took it out. Her exhaustion hit her, and she fell over.

Chat Noir looked over and saw Ladybug.

He ran to her and saw that blood was staining the ground. His eyes widened and picked her up, "No no no no don't do this to me, Ladybug!"

Ladybug opened her eyes slowly, Chat could tell that her face was going pale from the loss of blood. Ladybug reached up and held his cheek in her hand and spoke to him in a pained but soft voice,

"Chat… it's cold… everything is so blurry…"

"Everything will be okay, please, don't close your eyes! I'll take you to the hospital!" He picked her up and started running towards a nearby hospital.

"No… Chat… I still have to restore everything…"

"This isn't the time for that!" Chat yelled, "Please M'lady! Just let me take you to the hospital!"

Ladybug chuckled softly and squeezed his cheek lightly, "Even now… you still won't stop calling me that… you silly kitty…" Her hand slipped from his cheek and it fell over. Her eyes closed, and her suit started to disappear. But something different happened, as her suit disappeared, everything around him started to restore itself back to normal. He looked back to Ladybug. He started shaking.

"M-Marinette? …" He looked down to her wound, it was still there. He called her again.

No reply, he leaned his ear closer to her mouth – her breathing was weak, almost barely there but she wasn't gone. He quickly ran to the hospital and his suit disappeared as well. He arrived at the doorsteps of the hospital. The doors opened, "Please… help her…" He fell over and blacked out.

Adrien opened his eyes slowly. The ceiling looked different. He looked around and quickly got up – he was in the hospital but where was Marinette? He got out from the hospital bed and took off the wires that were attached to him. He opened the door and his father was standing there.

"F-father!"

Gabriel looked towards his son, "I don't understand why you were here when you were supposed to be in your room last night."

Adrien looked down, "I just … wanted to go outside, it was getting stuffy."

"You could have just told me instead of sneaking out."

"I'm sorry."

"No matter, you're old enough now to make your own choices. I'm just glad you're okay."

Adrien looked up to his father.

Gabriel cleared his throat, "I'm sure you're looking for that girl, she's in room 24.

"Thank you father."

Gabriel nodded his head and watched his son walk towards room 24.

Adrien opened the door gently and looked in. A nurse was there.

"Oh, Mr. Agreste. I see you're awake now, you've been in a coma for about two days."

She looked at Marinette. "Ms. Dupain-Cheng is in a stable condition, but she hasn't made any conscious movements yet." She looked back at Adrien. "You're very brave for bringing her in when both of you were in critical condition."

Adrien looked at Marinette and his heart ached. His mind flashbacked to the events of last night and he winced. His hand grabbed on his head.

The nurse ran up to him, "Are you okay?"

"I'm okay… I just need to sit."

"I can take you back to your room."

"No, please, you can just leave me here."

The nurse pulled up a chair for him to sit in and Adrien sat there, leaning his head back on the wall. He opened his eyes and looked at Marinette.

"I hope you wake up soon… M'lady."


End file.
